WASHINGTON, March 3 — Three of the leading Republican presidential candidates on Saturday denounced one of their party’s best-known conservative commentators for using an antigay epithet when discussing a Democratic presidential contender at a gathering of conservatives here.
The remarks by Ann Coulter, an author who regularly speaks at conservative events, were sharply denounced by the candidates, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Their statements came after Democrats, gay rights groups and bloggers raised a storm of protest over the remarks.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference before an overflow crowd on Friday, Ms. Coulter said, “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”
Mr. Edwards’s aides responded with an e-mail message that attacked Ms. Coulter and urged supporters to donate to Mr. Edwards’s campaign. “John was singled out for a personal attack because the Republican establishment knows he poses the greatest threat to their power,” said his campaign manager, David E. Bonior. “Since they have nothing real to use against him, Coulter’s resorting to the classic right-wing strategy of riling up hate to smear a progressive champion.”
Ms. Coulter, asked for a reaction to the Republican criticism, said in an e-mail message: “C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean.”
At the conference, she said she was likely to support Mr. Romney.
The three front-running GOP candidates ignored Coulter's remarks until the Edwards campaign, gay rights groups, and bloggers started protesting. And only then, do the GOP candidates put on their stern frowns, and say "No! No! No!" to poor little Annie Coulter for making her inappropriate choice of words. What is even more crazy is that the mainstream media also ignored the Coulter remark until the evil, liberal, "nutroots" blogosphere protested. Editor and Publisher reports that the Saturday March 2, New York Times story reported that Coulter made an appearance at CPAC, but never mentioned the remark. Editor and Publisher also reports that:
The Washington Post covered the conference but did not mention Coulter at all in its news report. Neither did the Associated Press, which also attended. UPI did mention the "faggot" quote in its report.
The Los Angeles Times on Saturday quoted Coulter and even put the controversy in a headline. It closed the article: "A Giuliani spokeswoman said she had not heard the speech, and a Romney spokesman did not return calls late Friday."
The Post's Dana Milbank, in a column for the Saturday paper, observed: "Ann Coulter used an anti-gay slur to describe John Edwards (the line drew applause) and asked: 'Did Al Gore actually swallow Michael Moore?' When a questioner asked Coulter why she praises marriage but broke off so many engagements, she responded by calling the questioner ugly."
If it wasn't for the protests within the liberal "nutroots" blogosphere, then the MSM would have ignored Coulter's homophobic, gay-bashing slur, and the GOP front-running candidates would be silently praising Coulter, instead of giving her a slap on the wrist. Who is more crazy here? Ann Coulter for making such a homophobic slur against a Democratic candidate? The CPAC attendees, who whooped and cheered Coulter's offensive remarks? The campaign staffs of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani, all hoping this latest political scandal will all blow over, even though both Romney and Giuliani attended the conference and no doubt heard the Coulter remarks? Or the mainstream media for dismissing Coulter's personal attacks against the gay-lesbian community and the Edwards campaign? Or the liberal, "nutroots" blogosphere for trying to raise this issue, and show the hypocrisy that exists within the Republican Party, Ann Coulter, the campaigns of McCain, Romney, and Giuliani, and the Kool-Aid-drinking CPAC attendees who enthusiastically support such hatred?
Update: Adam Nagourney, who wrote both the March 2, 2007 New York Times story covering the CPAC conference, and Sunday's NY Times story reporting the protests on the Coulter remarks, had a few interesting details of the email exchange with Ann Coulter, where Coulter claims her gay-bashing slur was a joke. According to Slate.com:
The Coulter-Nagourney Papers: Here is the fuller text of a recent email exchange between the NYT's Adam Nagourney and Ann Coulter concerning this controversy:
The three Republican presidential contenders denouncing you….Do you want to do any response?
C'mon it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean.
Did any of these guys say anything after I made the same remark about Al Gore last summer?Why not? What were they trying to say about Al Gore with their silence?
Nagourney's blog about the incident is here. ... Update: Nagourney's print piece is up. He quotes more of Coulter's email than he does on his blog (which is odd since it's usually the other way around). He also makes it clear he solicited Coulter's response.
Media Matters has an April 27, 2006 post where Coulter wrote a column calling Gore both "clinically insane," and "seemed kind of gay." I do find it interesting that Coulter attacks the liberal blogs and Edwards campaign for criticizing her on this latest slur, while ignoring the supposed slur she made against Gore. It is like she's trying to blame the liberal blogosphere for silently approving her gay-bashing slur against Gore, and thus the liberal blogosphere is also gay-bashing Gore as well. It is a rather circular argument that sidesteps the entire issue of Ann Coulter's own disgusting, personal attacks against both the gay-lesbian community and the John Edwards campaign. It was just a joke.
Disgusting.
What do you expect from such a hypocrite as Ann Coulter?
No comments:
Post a Comment